The Shadow of the Legend
by howponderous
Summary: This is my third (and hopefully first successful) attempt at writing a Naruto Story. In an alternate Naruto setting, Naruto dies in an attempt to bring Sasuke back to the village, however a new hero appears to take his place. Unfortunately, this hero isn't like Naruto at all, which isn't what the citizens of the Leaf want.
1. Chapter 1 - The Death of a Legend

**The following story is set very shortly after Naruto, Sai, Sakura and Yamato return from their failed mission retrieving Sasuke. It branches off from the original cannon of the series and explores a hypothetical plot point that has always interested me. **

**Naruto, Kakashi, Sakura and Sai have all recently been assigned a new mission with a lead as to where Sasuke is, and they are all currently approaching one of Orochimaru's supposed hideouts. **

Shikamaru was lying down with his hands behind his back and his eyes closed. Any outsider would simply assume that he was asleep, however he was far from it as his mind was as active as ever, constantly thinking and planning. His ears twitched as he heard someone munching on chips, he didn't even need to open his eyes to recognize who it was, so he said "Hey Choji."

Choji shoved another chip from his packet into his face before saying "Hey Shikamaru." Choji sat down next to Shikamaru before asking "Do you actually think they are gonna succeed this time?"

Shikamaru lazily opened his left eye before asking "Oh you mean Naruto and the rest of Team 7?"

Choji continued to shovel chips into his mouth as he nodded and said "Yeap."

Shikamaru looked back up and said "I honestly hope so. Not because I have any strong feelings for that Sasuke, but because I want him back for Naruto and Sakura's sake."

Choji nodded and said "Yeah, poor Naruto. I don't understand him at all."

Shikamaru scoffed and said "I understand him. I am sure you would go all crazy like his if I was captured right? I hope."

Choji paused and briefly stopped eating his chips to contemplate that question. After an awkward silence Choji shrugged his shoulders before saying "Yeah sure, why not."

Shikamaru smirked before saying "That doesn't exactly fill me with confidence for some reason." before they both started nervously laughing. When they both stopped laughing, Shikamaru looked back up at the clouds before thinking '_Still, I really couldn't stand seeing Naruto upset after failing to catch Sasuke again.'_

...

On the other side of the city the 3 rookies of Team Kurenai were sitting around. Hinata was sitting down and blushing bright red, which made Kiba and Shino immediately (and correctly) assume she was thinking about Naruto in some way. Kiba was running around with his stupidly large dog Akamaru seemingly aimlessly, whilst Shino was just sitting down looking at a bug in his hands. Suddenly Hinata broke the silence between the three and timidly said "I hope Naruto brings Sasuke back."

Kiba smirked and loudly shouted "Oh yeah whatever I will get Sasuke back if that idiot Naruto doesn't look out."

"I highly doubt that's going to happen Kiba. You keep claiming you are going to do all of these things that your peers are trying to achieve. You really need your own identity." Shino commented from the side.

Kiba and Akamaru both glared at Shino as Kiba shouted "What the hell is with that attitude?"

Hinata just giggled at the interaction between her two friends before she returned to fantasizing about Naruto.

...

"SASUKE!" Naruto shouted as his body started to become covered in a thin layer of bubbling, red chakra and a tail sprouted from behind his back. He teeth suddenly grew in size, and his eyes became a brilliant shade of red. Naruto was standing atop a mountain with Kakashi, Sakura and Sai standing closely behind him and Orochimaru, Sasuke and Kabuto were in front of him.

Orochimaru and Kabuto were both smirking their trademark smirk, whilst Sasuke just glared at Naruto. "Why the hell do you keep following me?" Sasuke said without any emotion in his voice.

Naruto growled before Kakashi said "Naruto calm down. What is the point of letting the Nine Tails control you here, we are supposed to take Sasuke back not destroy him."

Naruto quickly glanced back at Kakashi and shouted "Shut up!"

Kakashi looked back at Sai and nodded, Sai knew what this signal was immediately and pulled out a scroll from his back, before writing a weird seal on it. Once he was finished the seal mark popped up out of the scroll and quickly flew over to Naruto, before hitting him in the back. The second that seal hit Naruto, the chakra covering his body subsided, and he was suddenly knocked unconscious.

"What was that Kakashi Sensei?" Sakura asked.

"Sai temporarily sealed the Nine Tailed Fox Chakra back in Naruto so he didn't get out of hand like the last time. However it had the unfortunate side effect of temporarily knocking him out" Kakashi explained.

Sasuke nodded before he lept over at Naruto and pulled out is sword, he lifted it in the air and began to swing it down before Sai rushed over and blocked the swing with his tanto. Sai glared at Sasuke and said "I promise I won't let you lay a finger on Naruto. He still needs to teach me about bonds."

Sasuke smirked before he said "Ha, you all seem to love Naruto so much, but why I ask. Why have you all decided to suddenly worship that foll below us."

At this point Orochimaru piped up and said "Idiotic Leaf Village tendencies of compassion are illogical. I wouldn't wast me time trying to find the supposed theory behind it."

"You call it illogical. Well maybe from the viewpoint of someone with no compassion then it is illogical." Kakashi started to explain as he walked over to Sasuke and lifted his headband off his eye "But you see it has been said by those wiser, older and stronger than me that the kid lying under the blade of your sword has the uncanny ability to unite everyone to follow him. No matter how dark everyone's life is, Naruto here knows how that person is feeling and can help them through it, since he has been through hell himself. He took his negative experiences and used them for good, unlike you." Kakashi stopped talking as he drew a kunai from a belt and charged at Sasuke.

...

Its closed eyes twitched slightly as it heard a thud above it. It was cold, tired and hungry. It twitched slightly, movement in this liquid filled tank was a struggled. Its eyes opened ever so slightly and it looked at the tubes that were rapidly pouring various substances into its body. It wanted out. It wanted to be out of the tube and it wanted revenge. These sorts of thoughts filled its head as it started to meekly struggle and thrash around.

...

Kakashi thrust his arm forward at Sasuke's head. He had no intention of killing Sasuke since based on his dodging patterns and movement speeds this thrust would only pierce one of his shoulders. However as the blade was centimeters away from piercing his shoulder, something hit it out. Kakashi then jumped back instinctively and saw Kabuto smiling, adjusting his glasses in front of Sasuke. "Well well, that fight was interesting. However I feel like I might as well step in and stop this before it gets too dangerous."

"I didn't need your help Kabuto." Sasuke said spitefully.

Kabuto smiled and said "Sure sure Sasuke. I was getting a bit restless and thought I might join in." with a smug tone in his voice.

Kakashi looked back at Sai and Sakura as he commanded "Sai, you will fight Sasuke for a while and Sakura you protect Naruto whilst he is unconscious."

"But Kakashi Sensei, what are you doing in the mean time?" Sakura asked.

Kakashi turned back to Kabuto, glaring at him before saying "I have to fight Kabuto. He may not look like much, but don't let that deceive you. This guy managed to kill 10 Anbu Black Ops without breaking a sweat."

"Well I feel flattered Kakashi." Kabuto said, before pulling a medical scalpel from behind him and lunging at Kakashi. Kakashi managed to sidestep the attack, and pulled out his own kunai all in the one motion. Suddenly Sasuke lept at Kakashi from his left, before a large tiger made of ink hit him by surprise and knocked him down to the ground.

Sasuke looked up from the ground, to see Sai sitting in front of him with his scroll open at his feet and a large brush in his right hand. Sai started to madly sprawl a new image into his scroll, and within seconds was done. He threw his brush into the air and made multiple quick hand-signs, before he caught the brush mid air with his mouth and made the last hand seal. All of a sudden two white and black serpents shot out of the scroll at Sasuke at great speed. Sasuke quickly picked himself back up and lept into the air in order to dodge those snakes. He landed on his feet and said "I guess I need to deal with you as well then."

Sai smiled a fake smile and said "Well, at least you acknowledge me enough to accept I am worthy of your wrath."

...

It was moving its hands now, it could hear lightning and other loud cries from above now. It moved its arms and felt up and down its entire body. It was still in the rags it was in when that creepy snake man promised it food and a house. It moved its hands to the tubes in its arms, and it grasped them before pulling them all out, one by one. It was going to be free.

...

Naruto opened his eyes slowing to see Sakura standing over him. "S-Sakura what's happening?" He asked groggily.

Sakura looked down and saw Naruto lying there with his eyes opened. She glared at him and shouted "Naruto you idiot, Sai and Kakashi are risking their lives fighting, so get up before I knock you back unconscious."

Naruto jumped up and nervously said "Y-yes Sakura." before he picked himself up. He quickly crossed his two index fingers and produced a multitude of clones and he charged into battle.

...

It had removed all of the tubes from its body now, and it was regaining its strength slowly but surely. It looked up and saw its reflection, and was greeted with the sight of an awful looking face. A lot of its new facial features resembled that of a snake's, just like the person that brought it here. That man had made it hideous, and there was nothing it could do about it.

...

Naruto smirked as he stood over an overwhelmed Sasuke. No matter how skilled he was, he wasn't able to properly defend himself from the onslaught of both Sai and Naruto. Their teamwork was impressive, it might have even put Sasuke and Naruto's old team efforts to shame. Sasuke looked up and weakly asked "You and Sai are better teammates than I am, why do you still desperately try to bring me back?"

Naruto smiled and said "Sasuke, for such a genius you surely are stupid. You don't replace friends, no matter what they do to you, or how many new friendships you gain. If anything the more bonds I get with people, the more determined I am to reunite mine and yours Sasuke." Naruto smiled and offered Sasuke his hand.

Sasuke looked around quickly. Kakashi and Kabuto were both locked up in a fight, whilst Sai was being treated by Sakura for the injuries he suffered from Sasuke, and that snake Orochimaru was just standing there, with a sly look on his face. Sasuke looked back at Naruto, no one was really paying much attention to what was happening between the two, so it was his chance. He slowly opened his right arm, and just as Orochimaru had taught him he used his Chakra to move his sword into his palm. Then without warning he grasped it and thrust up at the unsuspecting Naruto and in one slick move penetrated his neck. Sasuke quickly ripped his sword out of Naruto's neck, before saying "Stupid fool."

Kakashi, Kabuto, Sai and Sakura all paused what they were doing, and just gawked at the sight of Naruto's lifeless body hitting the ground. There was a large period of silence, before Sakura cried out "NARUTOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" with tears in her eyes.


	2. Chapter 2 - The Lab Rat Appears

Apart from Sakura's screaming, everyone was silent as they stared at Naruto's corpse. Sai and Kakashi both looked like they were going to tear up, whilst Sasuke and Kabuto just stared away in indifference and Orochimaru just softly laughed to himself. Sakura ran over to Naruto and her hands started to glow green, as she put her hands onto his neck, pathetically trying to heal her comrade. "Sakura, stop it." Kakashi said sternly.

Sakura looked at Kakashi with tears running down her face and shouted "But I can save him."

Kakashi shook his head and said "You can't, he's gone. Anyway you need to remember the we are still in a fight here. The time for mourning occurs after the mission, you got that?" Sakura just shook her head and collapsed onto the ground on-top of Naruto, still bawling her eyes out.

...

It could hear something was screaming. The screams reminded it of the time it and the others were first brought here, every few minutes you would hear a high pitched scream from someone, before they went silent forever. It curled its fist up into a ball, and threw a punch as hard as it could at the glass screen in front of it, shattering the glass. Suddenly all of the liquid suspending it in the air spewed out of the broken tube, dropping it to its knees. It slowly picked itself up and opened its eyes, before saying "I need to save it."

...

Kakashi glanced around and weighed up his options. He needed to get out of here quickly, with Naruto dead and Sakura having a mental breakdown they were outnumbered. However retreat wasn't exactly easy considering him and Sai would have had to escort Sakura and Naruto's body with them. Kakashi walked over to Sakura, Sai and Naruto before whispering "Sai, get ready to pick Sakura up." Sai nodded as he stood up with his paintbrush in one hand, and his scroll in the other.

Kabuto smirked and said "Do you three seriously think you could get away? Your only advantage, numbers, is gone now and whilst you Kakashi can potentially beat me, I doubt little Sai there can last long against Sasuke here."

Kakashi looked around slowly, Kabuto was right. Despite Sai's training in the Root, Sasuke was trained by one of the Sanin, and he was also freakishly gifted. Heck Kakashi suspected that within a few years Sasuke would easily surpass him. Kakashi quickly put his hands into a handsign formation and said "Well, I guess we will just have to find out."

However before Kakashi could complete the casting of his Jutsu, something jumped in front of him. This something was a pale skinned, and rather short looking girl with short black hair that was in a mess. Her back was facing him and he could see a multitude of scars on it, that were barely being covered by some old rages. She turned to face Kakashi briefly, with a look on her face that seemed to be somewhere between upset and angry. Her face was what bothered Kakashi the most, since her eyes were similar to that of a snake's just like Orochimaru's. Kakashi noticed that she was staring at Sakura, who was lying on top of Naruto and sobbing. "Not another one. T-they killed another one." the mystery girl said, before she turned back to Orochimaru, Kabuto and Sasuke.

Orochimaru grinned as he said "Well, it seems one of them woke up somehow. That's odd I was sure one none of them could have survived the test."

"So I presume this girl is one of your lab rats then Orochimaru." Kakashi said angrily "And judging by that sentence and the scar's all over this girls body you did hideous things to her." Kakashi looked back at the girl, she was just standing there, not moving at all.

Sasuke looked at the girl disinterested before he looked back at Orochimaru and asked "Is she important?"

Orochimaru shook his head and said "Even if she was I doubt that would matter to you. The only reason she is still alive is because the experiment probably failed. So you can dispose of it as you wish."

Sasuke looked back at the girl and with a spiteful tone of voice said "You have two options, get out of my way or I will dispose of you like I did Naruto."

The girl acted as if she didn't even hear what Sasuke and just told her "Those eyes of yours are so beautiful. How do you get them so red?" The girl spoke slowly and softly in a very unsettling way as if she was about to pull her skin off an reveal a white figure inside her.

Sasuke frowned and said "Did you not hear me? Get away or I will crush you."

Kabuto pipped up and said "Don't worry about her Sasuke, she has been in a tube and experimented on for the past few years, I doubt she is even sane anymore. I wouldn't even call it a human at this point. However I wouldn't recommend taking it lightly, if any of the experiments we performed on it were successful, it could kill you easily."

"You people disgust me." Kakashi said with disdain in his voice.

Sasuke ignored Kakashi and didn't respond to Kabuto, he just continued to stare at the girl. He sighed, he felt a tad of sympathy for this girl so he humored her and said "These eyes of mine are called the Sharingan, and it is only something someone from the Uchiha clan can activate. These eyes help my combat ability tremendously, so can you please step aside now?"

The girl closed her eyes and said "That's good. Those eyes of yours are so beautiful and bright. But I must ask, how do mine look?" before she opened her eyes wide. Her eyes had changed from a pale green colour to a dark red with three black tear like shapes surrounding her pupils connected by a line, however her snake like pupils stayed the same shape.

Sasuke, Kabuto, Kakashi and Sai all looked very surprised whilst Orochimaru smiled and said "Well well, what do you know."

"Orochimaru, what is the meaning of this?" Sasuke demanded.

Kabuto adjusted his glasses on his face and explained "Well Sasuke, you have told us not to tell you about our activities, but because of the circumstances I guess you won't mind if we make this an exception. We took some blood samples of yours and injected them into multiple subjects, and she seems to be the only one that survived the injection experiments."

The girl looked around deliriously, as if she was trying to adjust to the altered vision her Sharingan gave her. "Everything's so pretty now" she whispered slowly.

Kakashi took this opportunity of confusion to think. Unfortunately this girl'd appearance probably won't increase him and his teams chance of escape much more, since she seemed so strangely deranged. In fact it hurt their chances, since he knew he wouldn't be able to leave without this girl and allow her to be kidnapped by Orochimaru once more. Kakashi frowned underneath his mask, and he tried desperately to think of a plan. However in the back of his mind there was a niggling feeling, as if he was forgetting something important that he just couldn't remember no matter what he tried. This put him at unease, which is the last thing he needed in this situation.

Sasuke looked at the new mystery Sharingan girl as she looked around slowly. She obviously had a mind like a small child, meaning she would be easy to take out. "I'm sorry." Sasuke whispered "But I can't allow a non Uchiha to have those eyes and live." and with that, he began to make multiple handsigns in quick succession before shouting "Fire Style, Fireball Jutsu."

"Oh no you don't" Kakashi said before making his own handsigns and shouting "Earth Style, Mud Wall Jutsu." and a wall of mud suddenly spouted in front of the confused and bewildered looking pale skinned girl. Kakashi ran next to her and said "Are you alright."

The girl nodded but jumped backwards as she heard a weird scream, and an electric covered hand was shoved through the wall. Then the wall was knocked down suddenly, to reveal Sasuke, with and electrical covered hand standing there. "So Kakashi, have you decided to help this girl. To be honest I was going to let you go, but I guess my hands are tied now."

"You really think you can take me on, after barely surviving your clash with Naruto and only winning because of a cheap tactic. Please just how much chakra do you think you have left. I doubt you could last 5 minutes in combat against me." Kakashi said.

"Well I guess we will have to just find out." Sasuke said before he made the same handsigns as earlier and repeated "Fire Style, Fireball Jutsu."

However, at the exact same time as Sasuke a feminine sounding voice also shouted "Fire Style, Fireball Jutsu." and he saw a second Fireball collided with Sasuke's, causing a massive explosion of fire. Kakashi looked beside him and gasped when he saw that the new girl was in the exact same pose as Sasuke was. She already figured out how to use that Sharingan of hers.

Sasuke dropped his arms to his shoulders and watched as the girl mimicked him perfectly. "Well, look at you. I bet you think you're special, learning such a cheap trick. However you know nothing of the Sharingan's power." Sasuke frowned as he heard the girl repeat exactly what he said at the exact same time.

"Sasuke, its time to retreat." Orochimaru said

Sasuke looked backwards and angrily asked "Why?"

"Because, you are going to lose unless me and Kabuto step in, and Kabuto is rather tired. However the main problem originates from that boy you killed. I think we only have about 5 hours until it is free." Orochimaru said.

"Until what is free?" Sasuke asked.

"The Nine Tailed Fox." Orochimaru said.

Kakashi gulped, that was what he was trying to remember. With Naruto no longer alive, it was only a matter of time before it broke free of his body. Meaning that if they didn't seal it in someone else soon, the Leaf Village would certainly be destroyed once more,

Sasuke made a brief expression of shock before returning to normal and saying "Yes Orochimaru." and the three ran off.

The girl looked at Kakashi and asked "Shall I follow them sir?"

Kakashi shook his head before saying "We need to go back to the leaf village immediately. And I need you to come too."

The girl closed her eyes, and reopened them, with her Sharingan now deactivated. She paused for a minute to think about Kakashi's proposition, before she nodded and said "Ok."

Kakashi slummed the unconscious Sakura over his shoulders before shouting "Sai, pick up Naruto. We need to get back to the leaf village immediately."

Sai nodded and said "Yes sir." before picking up the dead body of Naruto. Kakashi, Sai and the new girl quickly headed south towards the leaf village, as quickly as humanly possible.


	3. Chapter 3 - The Funeral

I remember the trip back to this so called Leaf Village quite well. The masked man called Kakashi was carrying the dead boy who's name I gathered to be Naruto, whilst the pale skinned kid called Sai was carrying the unconscious body of the pink haired girl called Sakura. The whole trip back was done in a somber silence. I wanted to call out to the two in front of me and ask them a few questions, but based on the atmosphere and the sad expressions on their faces I decided against it. So to pass the time I simply tried to remember my pass, but it failed miserably. I remembered a female that I assumed was my mother, just as I remembered a male figure I assumed was my father and I remember being randomly picked up, experimented on and tortured by the snake faced guy called Orochimaru. However apart from those select few memories I had no idea who or even what I was. Based on my reflection I could gather that I was at least female, and I knew I had those red eyes now, but apart from this I didn't know who I was at all. After a few minutes of trying my hardest to remember who I was, I was starting to feel just as depressed as I was when I was looking at the sad faces of Sai and Kakashi. So I shook my head before I started reflecting on how me and the Sasuke character was somehow able to shoot fire out of our mouths after just a few simple handsigns.

After about half an hour of somber silence and tension the trip finally finished when we arrived at a large gate in the middle of a very dense forest. It was then that everything happened rather quickly, the body was quickly taken away by the people of the village because of some fox that Kakashi mentioned. And then once word seemed to spread of this kid's death everyone in it seemed to start mourning for a long period of time. It was quite weird to walk down the street and look on as people were wearing black and crying. In fact the only person who didn't seem so upset was Sai, who was managing to even put on a smile. In fact I even started to wonder if this depressing state was the norm in this village, and if it was I knew it would only be a matter of time before I left. So on my third day in the village I walked over to his house, and I jumped in through the window. I looked around to see a rather barren room that was covered in beautiful pictures of scenery and people, and saw that Sai was sitting down and madly painting something on the floor. He looked up and seemed to acknowledge me with a smile before saying "Oh hello, how may I help you today?"

I smiled a little as well, I was just glad to be around someone who wasn't on the verge of crying. I hadn't even seen that Sakura girl since Naruto's death, but apparently her and another girl who seemed to have a crush on him are currently suffering a mental breakdown. I looked at him as I asked "Yeah... why is everyone so sad about that Naruto guy being dead? Or is the village usually this depressing?"

Sai giggled a little before saying "No silly, the village isn't normally like this. You see that blonde kid who died was a rather special person, who basically united the village. Not only that but it seemed as if he had a special power to make those around him like him, which meant that this whole village lost a friend."

I nodded before asking "Then why aren't you acting upset?"

Sai seemed to twitch a little for a second there, it was almost unnoticeable but it definitely happened. Sai then nodded before saying "Well, this isn't very common knowledge but I don't know what emotions are. So I don't know how to feel sad."

I frowned before asking "How do you not know about emotions?"

"I would love to tell you but that is classified information. I apologize." Sai said maintaining that smile which I now assume is fake and/or forced.

I nodded before I said "Thank you." and jumped out of the door.

...

The next day, the funeral was finally held. I sat next to Kakashi and Sai as I watched people that were obviously close to Naruto burst into tears. The biggest highlight... actually highlight is probably the wrong word but I will use it anyway. The biggest highlight of the funeral was when he was being lowered down into the ground, and two girls burst from the crowd over to the coffin and started bawling incoherently. The first of the two girls was that pink haired girl from earlier, and the second one was a long blue haired girl who was obviously the other girl who I had heard was going through the mental breakdown. Anyway after that little bawling session of theirs they suddenly started wildly attacking the priest at the service whilst the blue haired one screamed "HE'S NOT DEAD. NARUTO CAN'T DIE. STOP BURYING HIM PLEASE!". These two however were very quickly restrained and escorted off the premise. During the whole sad (although I must admit kinda funny) ordeal I turned to Kakashi and asked "Why are those two so upset?"

Kakashi sighed and looked up into the air before quietly explaining "Well, you see Sakura here is best friends with Naruto, and has an irrational crush on Sasuke. Not only that but Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura were once on a ninja team together and were all very close, before Sasuke left and turned rouge that is. So she witnessed her closest friend being murdered by the one she loves, which obviously caused some serious psychological damage." Kakashi paused for a moment before he continued explaining "And that Hinata there is and always has been in love with Naruto, to the point where she would blush whenever he payed her the slightest bit of attention. Not only that but he was a huge role model for her."

I nodded, I assumed that the blue haired girl was this Hinata character. I followed her with my arms as they were being carried off my a large amount of people I assumed were ninjas. I looked over at Sai, who had intelligently dropped his fake smile and was now looking serious, even though I knew it was a facade.

...

The second Naruto's body was dropped in that hole and the funeral was over however, all attention seemed to shift over to me, which I did not like at all. Firstly, I was dragged by Kakashi and Sai to this blonde haired person with impractically large breasts who was called Tsunade the Hokage. Hokage apparently meant that she was basically in charge of the village, and apparently you become Hokage by being the most skilled ninja in the village, which goes against my assumption that it was awarded to the person with the largest breasts in the village. That may seem weird but seriously they are just freaky. Anyway when I was presented to her in her room she asked me "So, you are this new Sharingan user I have heard about. Tell me what is your name?"

I flinched slightly at that question, for I honestly had no idea what my name was. As I previously mentioned I remember what my mum and dad looked like and being shoved in a tube and that was about it, apart from speech and basic survival functions. Whilst I was madly trying to think of something that sounded like a name I looked around this ladies office. The office was rather quaint, with a few random shelves here and there and a desk at the end of the room which stood in front of a large glass window that overlooked that whole city. When I noticed this Hokage lady getting impatient I stopped looking around the room, shrugged my shoulders and said "Ummmmm, I don't know. How does Somma Violet sound?"

The Hokage women looked at me condescendingly and said "You just made that up didn't you."

I nodded and said "To be honest it sounded a lot better than the truth, which is I just completely forgot my name, along with most other things. But I kept the memories of my parents which I am sure goes to prove some sort of psychological theory out there."

The Hokage lady looked at me puzzled before she took a deep breath and said "Well... anyway I heard about what you did a few days ago, I was also informed by Kakashi that if it weren't for you showing up Kakashi may not have survived, and the Nine Tails would have been released. So for that I want to thank you."

I nodded, I had no idea what this lady was talking about when she mentioned foxes but I just went along with it. "Thanks." I said insincerely. I hate when people thank you for doing something major for them with a simple 'Thank You'. The least you could do is give me something crappy, but then again this lady was letting me stay in the Leaf Village, so any misgivings I felt for her quickly faded away.

The Hokage smiled and said "So, in return for your services how would you like to become a ninja?"

I looked at her and asked "By becoming a ninja do you mean I will learn how to shoot fire out of my mouth again?" Tsunade simply nodded her head before I smirked and asked "What sane person wouldn't want to learn that?"


End file.
